The Exploit: A Theory of Networks - asounder
The Exploit: A Theory of Networks - asounder
The Exploit: A Theory of Networks - asounder
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Nodes 77<br />
is central in the development <strong>of</strong> biological science, but its meanings<br />
are not limited to the biological. It is both essentialist (the most real,<br />
immediate foundation) and constructed (new sciences such as genetics<br />
provide new views <strong>of</strong> “life itself”). “Life itself” is constructed as a<br />
type <strong>of</strong> limit point, the degree zero <strong>of</strong> organic vitality. <strong>The</strong> concept is<br />
constructed as having nothing behind or beneath it. “Life itself ” is<br />
thought to be self - evident as a concept, and therefore it <strong>of</strong>ten remains<br />
unquestioned. Yet we suggest that, like any ideological construct, the<br />
concept <strong>of</strong> “life itself ” must continually be produced and reproduced<br />
in order to retain its power as a meme. This is evidenced not only by<br />
examples in biomedicine (DNA as the unimpeachable “book <strong>of</strong> life”)<br />
but also in the social existence <strong>of</strong> online virtual communities, wireless<br />
mobile technologies, and e - consumerism and entertainment, which<br />
take as their target the elevation <strong>of</strong> an aestheticized life or “lifestyle.”<br />
Biopolitics can be understood, in our current network society, as the<br />
regulation—and creation—<strong>of</strong> networks as living networks.<br />
Biopolitics achieves this through a multistep process: first, all living<br />
forms must be made amenable to an informatic point <strong>of</strong> view (the<br />
hegemony <strong>of</strong> molecular genetics and cybernetics plays an important<br />
role here). <strong>The</strong>n, once “information” can be viewed as an index into<br />
“life,” that information is accommodated by network structures (algorithms,<br />
databases, pr<strong>of</strong>iles, registrations, therapies, exchanges, login/<br />
password). Finally, once life is information, and once information is a<br />
network, then the network is made amenable to protocols—but with<br />
the important addition that this real - time, dynamic management <strong>of</strong><br />
the network is also a real - time, dynamic management <strong>of</strong> “life itself ”<br />
or living networks. 51<br />
Life-Resistance<br />
<strong>The</strong> stress given to security in recent years has made it more and more<br />
difficult to <strong>of</strong>fer a compelling theory <strong>of</strong> resistance, one unfettered by<br />
the dark epithets so easily crafted by the political Right—such as<br />
“cyberterrorist” or even “hacker,” a word born from love and now<br />
tarnished by fear—but we would like to try nonetheless.